. >> asking barack obama not to be a big-spending, high-taxing liberal is a denial of everything that we've learned about him in his career. it's much better for the house republicans to say, this is what we're prepared to do. there are dozens of places you can dramatically change spending without having to get involved in a general crisis over the u.s. debt. >> does he have a point? do you think this is a message from the former speaker that's worth heeding? >> well, we definitely want to work with president obama, and we're at the beginning of the 113th congress. i would also say that this is our moment, though. the american people know that our economy is struggling right now, partly because of the debt that is impacting american families, hard-working taxpayers all across this country. when president obama was in the senate, when he was a u.s. senator, he voted against raising the debt ceiling. and he said it was a lack of leadership that had brought us to this point. and so i would, at the beginning of this congress, hope that the president would make this a new start, where we c